windows8

Microsoft tunes up Windows 8 Xbox Music app

Microsoft has tweaked its Xbox Music app with a few audible enhancements.

The app now lets you add and sync your songs from your local library to the cloud so they're available on your other Windows 8 or RT devices. You can also automatically add any matched songs from your library to the cloud.

You have more options when listening to an album. You can tell the app to repeat as well as shuffle songs. You can turn on a Smart DJ feature that tries to create a playlist based on songs you may like. Finally, Xbox Music offers … Read more

Microsoft updates Windows 8 Mail, Calendar, and People apps

Microsoft has tweaked its Mail, Calendar, and People apps for Windows 8 and RT users with some much-need improvements.

The three core apps, which are bundled together, received some long overdue tweaks last night that make them a bit more user-friendly. But along with those improvements comes one negative: the Calendar app will no longer sync with Google Calendar appointments.

On the plus side, the Mail app now offers full folder management. You can create, rename, and delete folders and subfolders to better organize your e-mail.

Managing individual messages is also much easier. You can select multiple e-mails to delete, … Read more

Windows 8 core app updates due tomorrow

Microsoft is set to make available to users substantial updates to at least some of its core Windows 8 and Windows RT applications this week.

Microsoft executives announced today that starting tomorrow, they'll make available via the Windows Store significant updates to the Mail, People, and Calendar apps that are built into Windows 8 and Windows RT.

For a list of all the new features that will be part of this push, check out my ZDNet colleague Ed Bott's post on the Mail/Calendar/People updates. Like many early Windows 8 and Windows RT users, I'm happy … Read more

Windows 8 store hits 50,000 apps

Windows 8 and RT users can now shop for more than 50,000 apps.

Microsoft's Windows Store hit that milestone this past weekend, according to data from MetroStore Scanner, a Web site that monitors the number of apps on the store's virtual shelves.

The Windows Store got off to a slow start when it first opened for business around a year ago. Microsoft was challenged trying to convince enough developers to design apps for the new and unproven operating system. A month before Windows 8 and RT officially launched last October, the store housed only around 2,000 apps.… Read more

Do we need another Windows OS?

Microsoft made a case this week for Windows RT, its stripped down version of Windows 8. But do we need a third version of Windows?

It's been about five months now since Windows RT debuted. And this week Microsoft made a case to CNET for the new operating system.

Michael Angiulo, corporate vice president, Windows Planning, Hardware & PC Ecosystem, told CNET: "It was a ton of work for us and we didn't do the work and endure the disruption for any reason other than the fact that there's a strategy there that just gets stronger … Read more

Windows Blue is aimed at Intel 'Haswell' ultrabooks

Longer lasting Haswell ultrabooks are coming with Windows Blue.

Intel's upcoming Haswell chip will be tied to new technology coming with Windows Blue, according to a source close to Microsoft.

Haswell, due in June, is the next-generation mainstream Intel processor that will power ultrabooks and a variety of hybrids that straddle tablet and laptop designs.

Intel's silicon-level Haswell technology will result in "the single largest generation-to-generation battery life improvement in Intel history," according to a recent statement from Intel CEO Paul Otellni.

But Windows Blue -- an update to Windows 8 that is expected to deliver … Read more

Microsoft ready to update Windows 8 built-in apps

It looks like Microsoft is indeed poised to update almost all its core, Microsoft-developed apps that shipped with Windows 8.

At the start of this month, I posted that Microsoft was expected to provide updates to everything from Windows Mail to Xbox Music sometime in March.

On March 22, Windows SuperSite editor Paul Thurrott discovered there is a stack of updates that are "installation ready" for Windows 8. These include:

Microsoft.BingTravel Microsoft.Camera Microsoft.Bing Microsoft.Reader Microsoft.BingNews Microsoft.windowsphotos (Photos) Microsoft.BingFinance Microsoft.microsoftskydrive Microsoft.XboxLiveGames Microsoft.ZuneVideo Microsoft.BingWeather Microsoft.ZuneMusic (Xbox Music) Microsoft.… Read more

Leaked benchmarks portend shift in Windows 8 'PC' design

The first benchmarks of Intel's upcoming "Haswell" Fourth-Generation Core processors have leaked. But asking how fast future Windows 8 PCs will be is probably the wrong question.

The Haswell chip that Tom's Hardware got a hold of and tested showed only modest central processing unit, or CPU, performance improvements over the latest hardware.

This would seem to indicate the future of Windows PCs -- which in this case means newfangled devices like Microsoft Surface and HP's Envy x2 -- isn't about the desktop anymore.

"The mobile space is where Intel's efforts should … Read more

Internet Explorer 10

Review: The story of Internet Explorer resembles nothing less than the "Ugly Duckling," a maligned and mocked bird that grew into something far more beautiful. Such is the case with Internet Explorer 10 and its roots as Internet Explorer 6.

Microsoft has improved its signature browser in fits and spurts coinciding often with major Windows upgrades over the past 10 years, but IE 10 is the winner that Microsoft fans have long been craving. Fast, standards-compliant, and even future-forward in some ways, Microsoft got it right with IE 10. Still, it has some drawbacks that keep it from … Read more